Two years ago, here on the blog, we wrote:

"We observe  that New York from year to year is becoming more and more friendly to its residents and tourists. With each stay here we discover new investments which change this city into a metropolis where people do not only work but also relax and breathe fresh air!

Along Broadway and on Times Square the car traffic has been limited, a green lane has been separated for tables and chairs where everybody can sit without paying for anything.

Great avenues and streets are decorated with bushes and flower beds. One can sit wherevere it is possible: on benches, stairs and low granite walls where people eat their lunches and relax.

There are more and more bicycle paths and along the Hudson River (ca 10 km), where sometime ago used to be harbour warehouses, a green belt was built for cyclists, strollers, and athletes - the Hudson River Park.

And now the latest idea of the New York town planners: an old, useless railway viaduct, running above a dozen streets, has been transformed into a walking paths. This is a real post-industrial hit in this city.”

The High Line is a cargo railway viaduct turned into a public park in Manhattan,  the part of the historic structure,  between W 14th and 34th streets.

It has a length of over 3 km. The cost was $ 223 million from both government and private funds. The last section of a length of about 1 km was opened two days before our arrival.

Nearly five million walkers each year can watch from the height a view of the busy streets of Midtown Manhattan and the Hudson River. Visitors walk on concrete slabs, softened by grasses, shrubs and trees, sit on the benches among the flowers or lie on wooden quasi-trolleys on rails exposing their faces to the sunshine.